New Skill Idea: Taxidermy

[John]

Alright, old timers will probably be getting deja vu here. I made this suggestion one time around 2002. I believe I may have made it again in 2006, but I'm not a 100% sure (I believe Armageddon Reborn was announced in that year so I may have simply collated my notes on this proposed skill for the addition of it appearing in that version of the game). So I thought I would post it once more.

Why? Because the playerbase changes over the years as does the staff. I think there are 6 active staff members that are still here that were back in 2002. So old ideas should be dusted off to see if there's any appeal to them or if no-one wants them. Plus, I still think the proposed skill is pretty cool I may be in the minority. Here it is.

New Skill Idea: Taxidermy

Brief Synopsis
The ability to use the craft code to create items involving the appearance of the dead animals, such as mounted heads as trophies, paws preserved as good luck charms, whole bodies in various poses. It may require one single taxidermy skill or incorporate many different skills.

Methods
Stuffing
A common method among the lower castes, especially in the south, this method of taxidermy creates a crude appearance of the animal. First the animal is skinned with the skin then tanned to preserve it. After the tanning process the skin is re-stitched with stuffing inside. The stuffing used differs from location to location with Tuluk commonly using cotton while sand is commonly used in the south. Rags are another stuffing that can also be used, and is done so all over the Known World where taxidermy is practiced.

Note: The sand is something I thought up, not used IRL (from what I could find). Might not actually work.

Mannikined Animals:
Method 1:
Extremely common in Tuluk among the middle to upper classes, the animal's skin is carefully removed and either preserved in chemicals or tanned. Any non-degradable body-parts such as a chitin and shell are kept in addition to the hide. A mannikin is sculpted from wood in a particular pose. Artificial eyes (and occasionally teeth) is glued on before the skin is carefully glued on. The mannikin is then left to dry.

More expensive mannikins may have the skin revitalized with oils, and any shrunken skin extended by colored wax.

Tuluki taxidermists who have traveled to Allanak have been known to employ this technique, although due to the high price of wood the process is extremely expensive and so rarely employed.

Method 2:
The norm for the southern climates, the process begins by skinning the animal and discarding the flesh and organs. The bones are carefully cleaned before clay is then applied to them to recreate the shape of the animal. Afterwards the mannikin is placed in a large and very hot fire to harden the clay. In Allanak a common rumor among taxidermists is that some people hire Krathies for this part, although very few will admit doing so. After the manikin has cooled the skin is then sewed or glued on .

Method 3:
The animal's head is chopped off and the skull cleaned.

Note: Method 2 is an attempt to Zalanthize the mannikin process and may not work.

Cleaning Bones With Bugs and Beatles:
A common method for cleaning bones all over the Known World is to use captured bugs and skulls, although in Tuluk this is normally only done with skulls. First as much of the meat as possible is removed from the bone. After doing so the taxidermist ensures the bone is moist (perhaps even rewetting if it had dried) before placing it in a cage of some small beetles and bugs. They bugs and beatles will then eat all of the meat from the bone.

Prospering taxidermists will keep a number of such cages in order to alternate the cage the bone is in as the appetite of the bugs wane and grow as they eat, which speeds up the process of cleaning the bone. Especially rich taxidermists are able to keep the beetles' cage moist and dark.

The process of cleaning the bone can take several days to weeks. Afterwards the skull is placed in the sun to dry.

Cleaning Bones By Bacteria:
A common practice in Tuluk with skulls, the largest chunks of meat are removed from the bone before it is submersed completely in water (size of container depends on the size of the bone). Bacteria will grow on the bone that will eat away the tissue. This method takes about a week and should be roleplayed out despite code limitations. It is a good idea to keep the same old water in the container to keep most of the bacteria. If done rarely, perhaps even feed the bacteria once every month.

After the bone is cleaned, take it out and clean with cleaner water before scrubbing with coarse wool or a brush. Once cleaned let it dry in the sun for a few days. If any teeth are loose or missing, clean them as well to reinsert later.

Some taxidermists swear by adding beer or various other liquids to the water. Whether or not this adds any benefit is much debated among those in the profession.

Cleaning Bones by Simmering:
Performed by rich taxidermists everywhere, the biggest chunks of meat are removed from the bone. The bone is then submersed in water that has been mixed with sodium carbonate (the ashes of many different plants. Which plants are used can create quite a heated debate among taxidermists). The bone is then simmered in the same container and water until the skin is easily removed. The bone is then removed from the container and the flesh taken off with cleaning the skull regularly as the taxidermist goes along (only done by taxidermists who have access to a large amount of water). The bone is then dried (and bleached if it will be seen rather then used in creating a mannikin). A common tactic used by patient taxidermists is to leave the bone soaking in the water (normally for a week) which cuts down on the amount of time needed to simmer.

Cleaning Bones With Bags:
A common technique in the south, the bone is placed in a loosely woven bag (possibly with the flap left open) and left outside. Insects will be attracted and bacteria will grow on it and eat away at the flesh. Once the flesh starts falling off the taxidermist takes it out and cleans it.

Pickling:
A method found all over the Known World for the upper class, this involves placing whatever is to be pickled inside a container with salt water inside. Pickled items are commonly placed in glass jars filled with salt water in order to display them. The glass jar portion of this method (and the salt for Tulukies) is extremely expensive due to the need to import the glass. However it can also be taken away almost straight away as once placed in the glass jar, nothing more is done.

Items Associated With Taxidermy
* A glass case with the animal inside and a background painted on the back.
* Mounted heads on wooden frames.
* Stuffed animals.
* Preserved animals rugs (e.g. the dead bear with jaw still intact).
* Posing animals

Tools:
It would work as any other crafting skill, with items provided in game that would give a coded bonus (such as hooked knives for cleaning an animal) along with props/rooms that didn't give a coded advantage (such as working in a cool room).

Possible Implementations:
* Have a single taxidermy skill that all taxidermy related items use.
* Have a taxidermy skill for the majority of the preserving and creating the finishing product. But have other skills used for the intermediary stages and supplies, such as skinning for the raw materials, tanning the hide to prepare it, jewelry making to create gemstone eyes, wood-crafting to make the mount and then taxidermy to put it all together.
* Have no specific taxidermy skill and merely use existing skills. Such as skinning for the raw materials, tanning the hide to prepare it, jewelry making to create gemstone eyes, clothworking to put the head (or animal) together, wood-crafting to put the finished head onto the mount.

Possible People To Get This:
* Hunters
* Merchants
* Nilazi??? (I associate Nilazi magickers with dead bodies)
* New subguild called Taxidermist

Possible Skills to Branch From:
* Tanning because it requires a fair amount of knowledge on hides to do correctly.
* Skinnning because it requires a fair amount of knowledge about anatomy.
* Clothworking because the finished product does often require placing the hide onto the mannikin/skull.

Pros:
* Creates the ability for new items to be added the game
* Allows people to add atmosphere to their home. E.g. A hunter who has numerous trophies from far-off animals.
* Encourages hunters to hunt in remote locations for exotic trophies, rather then just the local area.
* Might require many skills for a well stuffed animal (stonework for eyes, wood for frame) which would encourage working with other players.
* Most, if not all, taxidermy-related items would be PC craftable as there are few (or even none) currently in game.
* Takes advantage of existing crafting code with very little (AFAIK) code addition necessary to implement the skill.
* Would encourage hunting for sport among city people, which could be a major cultural difference between the majority of city-folk and tribals (or even rich city-folk and poor hunters). Hunting for sport doesn't necessarily mean spam-hunting though. Good roleplayers would roleplay it out correctly.
* Very different methods of preparing and creating the stuffed animals depending on location and wealth.
* Could lead to a faux taxidermy skill where con-artists create fake stuffed animals, such as a small dragon from wood and silt flyer skin, and con people into believing it is a real animal which could lead to interesting plots.

Cons:
* May encourage hunter nobles. Nobles would have to be OOCly reminded that they personally shouldn't, but could hire hunters to do it for them. However if it was deemed appropriate by the staff, it COULD be a sport for nobles. Often PC nobles wish to fight, perhaps hunting with bows and arrows (while all the time carefully guarded) would offer a combat outlet for PCs. A typical expedition would be consist of a wagon with many (if not all) of the PC guards (possibly Byn as well). The noble would use a bow to shoot animals (perhaps from a special compartment on the wagon?) while the PC guards surround the wagon. If the animal comes to attack, the PC guards kill it. Afterwards a skilled skinner/taxidermist is sent out to prepare the corpse for travel while the noble wines and dines within the wagon (served by any PC servants) with any fellow nobles they invited along. It could offer a reliable and regular RPT for nobles and their employees.
* Will inevitably encourage players asking for the ability to create stuffed dead PCs.
* No current items (or very little) would take advantage of this skill so either not a lot of items would use it or there would need to be a large addition of items to use it. This would be a lot of building on the staff's part, even if PCs provided the descs and crafting recipes.
* Majority of methods require a lot of time spent on the work. The code couldn't force PCs to spend the time so they might be inclined to craft it as any other items are in only 10mins. Although this could be lessened by creating a doc on the website, perhaps under Subguild Roleplay, using much of the information provided in this proposal.

NOTE: I feel this last point is no longer much of an issue. I think our code is sufficient that a timer can be placed on objects put into a container and if it has the appropriate type, automatically get crafted once the timer finishes counting down. But i might just be making stuff up.

Supplemental Ideas:
Taxidermist NPC
An NPC that can take dead animal corpses (unskinned) and via a script offer a list of items he could make from that. If accepted he gives a ticket and after an amount of time (most likely days) the ticket can be given for the end item.

This would be done via a script rather then a skill check and crafting, with a list of acceptable animal corpses and a list of items that can be made from those corpses. An example would be:
the body of a dead scrab could be made into:
* a shoddily stuffed scrab. Price - 50 'sid. Length of time - 5 hours.
* a bleached scrab skull.  Price - 100 'sid. Length of time - 11 days.
* an eyeless, mounted scrab.  Price - 280 'sid. Length of time - 13 days.
* a mounted scrab head with obsidian eyes. Price - 350 'sid. Length of time - 13 days.
* a well-preserved scrab. Price - 500 'sid. Length of time - 15 days.
* A glass jar with a scrab head inside. - Price 550 'sid. Length of time - 2 hours.

This would have the advantage of:
* Demonstrating how long it takes to do taxidermy.
* Allow time for items made with taxidermy to be added to the game before allowing players have access to the coded skill.

Sources:
The following websites were used to find out information about taxidermy:
* http://www.taxidermy.net/information/gamehd1.html
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxidermy
* http://www.sportsmanschoice.com/A%20Note%20Worth%20Reading/taxidermy.htm
* http://www.victorian-taxidermy.co.uk/Notes%20for%20the%20taxidermy%20collector.htm
* http://www.hidetanning.net/
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_carbonate
* http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/newsletter/dec08-2004.htm

--
That's right. I quote sources for this idea. That's how much time I put into thinking about this. Also I did a google search and I couldn't find the contents of this post anywhere. So either I didn't post it in 2006 or I did and the thread no longer exists. I promise I won't post this idea again before 2018. Also here's a little nugget I found when I was searching my old taxidermy posts

I remember an Imm mentioning something about not liking people to be skinnable for eating objects due to the fact everyone would turn into cannibals. Although females are food-makers with their baby-making ability).

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I love it. Absolutely love it.

[Is Friday]

I can only imagine how interesting the Byn contracts would get if they had to bring the entire mekillot corpse back with them for the Fale Lord.

[Yam]

It'd be a lot simpler to mastercraft taxidermized things as a merchant with master tanning and/or leatherworking.

I mean, it's a cool idea, but taxidermy is a relatively modern craft. A few people in Zalanthas might know it, but they would be relegated to the upper echelons of merchant and noble houses. The vast majority of Zalanthans are going to turn animals into usable materials.

I think it would be anachronistic to have stuffed game be anything but extremely rare.

[Barsook]

I love it. Absolutely love it.

[Patuk]

I love it. Absolutely love it.

[Riya OniSenshi]

It'd be a lot simpler to mastercraft taxidermized things as a merchant with master tanning and/or leatherworking.

I mean, it's a cool idea, but taxidermy is a relatively modern craft. A few people in Zalanthas might know it, but they would be relegated to the upper echelons of merchant and noble houses. The vast majority of Zalanthans are going to turn animals into usable materials.

I think it would be anachronistic to have stuffed game be anything but extremely rare.

[Nyr]

>mount corpse

[Ktavialt]

I love it. Absolutely love it.

[Bacon]

I love it. Absolutely love it.

[MeTekillot]

Would we get to do this with PC corpses? Or at least the heads?

[Dar]

I mean, it's a cool idea, but taxidermy is a relatively modern craft.

I honestly do not think taxidermy is modern at all. I would imagine it goes back quiet a few thousands of years. Mummification if nothing else is a form of taxidermy. Though the real quality work began somewhere from 16th century and on.

[Kismetic]

It'd be a lot simpler to mastercraft taxidermized things as a merchant with master tanning and/or leatherworking.

Streamline, where possible.

[Kol]

As much as I love this idea, I have to agree with some sentiments on this thread. Taxidermy in Zalanthas is something I see a bored Dasari taking up, or something relegated to one or two really really rich merchants in each city. It's tijme consuming, expensive (in Zalanthian terms at least) which means the finished product would be something that only Noble or GM houses could afford.

You want a Stuffed Carru for your study, Lord Noble-fancy-pants? Of course, I have to get a crew to get me the Carru, and get it back here before the heat ruins it, take that week or two to prep the corpse, stuff it, and set it, so with time, effort, manpower and materials that comes to yadda yadda 'sid. Lord Fany-pants? LORD FANCY-PANTS! IS THERE A PHYSICIAN IN THE TAXIDERMIST?

[Maso]

Love it. +1

[Gunnerblaster]

As a skill; it doesn't seem to be something that would really interesting me - But I would like NPC Taxidermist.

[FantasyWriter]

As a skill; it doesn't seem to be something that would really interesting me - But I would like NPC Taxidermist.

It is in game, btw.  Mastercraft from maxed skill_tanning. Give it a try.

[FantasyWriter]

PS- I've never actually tried, but I assume it would be quite possible.

[Synthesis]

As much as I love this idea, I have to agree with some sentiments on this thread. Taxidermy in Zalanthas is something I see a bored Dasari taking up, or something relegated to one or two really really rich merchants in each city. It's tijme consuming, expensive (in Zalanthian terms at least) which means the finished product would be something that only Noble or GM houses could afford.

You want a Stuffed Carru for your study, Lord Noble-fancy-pants? Of course, I have to get a crew to get me the Carru, and get it back here before the heat ruins it, take that week or two to prep the corpse, stuff it, and set it, so with time, effort, manpower and materials that comes to yadda yadda 'sid. Lord Fany-pants? LORD FANCY-PANTS! IS THERE A PHYSICIAN IN THE TAXIDERMIST?

You don't need an entire carcass to do taxidermy.  All you need is the skin, and the miscellaneous bits (hooves, horns, teeth, etc).  The rest is just stuffing and reinforcement.